Sisters add a sweet ingredient to cookbook

A SISTERLY love of food and art has helped produce a quirky cookbook of homely recipes that's all in the family.

The Bookery Cook: Art to Eat is the four-year labor of love created by Sunshine Coast born-and-bred sisters Jessica, Georgia and Maxine Thompson.

The cookbook features a series of recipes inspired from their childhood and travels during university.

"Our mum is an amazingly talented cook and that has been passed down to us all," Georgia said.

"We also all had the chance to travel a lot after school so a lot of the recipes are ones we adapted from overseas.

"There are a lot of Asian and South African flavours mixed in with our childhood favourites."

The recipes are accompanied by locally crafted illustrations and pictures that add a truly unique spin to the traditional cookbook idea.

"We wrote the book when we were all living together in Brisbane studying, so a lot of our friends were artists and illustrators," Georgia said.

"When we explained our vision to them, they were all very excited to contribute.

"It wasn't long until they then spread the word to their friends as well. It grew very quickly."

While the family is spread around the world these days, with Jessica in Melbourne and Maxine in in New York, Georgia said the trio had plans to produce a sequel to their successful first effort.

"We have a blog that we all contribute to now and a lot of local artists send us illustrations to bring life to the dishes," Georgia said of their global network.

"The book has in many ways continued to grow online through the blog."

The sisters have all studied in the creative and digital design industry and will be together again on the Coast next month when Maxine returns from The Big Apple where she has been studying for the past three years.

This beautifully-crafted book, The Bookery Cook: Art to Eat, combines 120 original recipes by the Thompson sisters, and unique artwork by 66 international artists.

Jessica, Georgia and Maxine, grew up on a farm on the Sunshine Coast and have collectively worked and studied in the arts, design, fashion, travel and food industries.

Their experience and passion is obvious looking through this funky cookbook, each recipe accompanied by eclectic images which are as much a delight to look at as I'm sure the dishes are to eat.

The only downfall for me, and it's a tricky one as I loved looking at each work of art, is the fact there is no photographs of the finished dishes - which is often how I make up my mind as to which meal to prepare.

But needless to say, the Bookery Cook would earn a respected place on the bookshelf alongside your favourite cookbooks, or in pride of place on the coffee table.